Stamford International University, Thailand

STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPANY CHARACTERISTICS,DEMOGRAPHY OF ENGINEERS AND THEIR PERCEPTION OF THE AEC AND ITS ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCING THE DECISION TO DEVELOP THEIR FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS, IN BANG POO INDUSTRIAL AREA, SAMUTHPRAKARN, THAILAND

Chaya Sutthipornphalangkoon*

Stamford International University, Thailand

Keywords:
AEC
Perception
Decision Making
MRAs
Engineers / Abstract. The objectives of this study were to find the relationship between the company characteristics, demography of engineers and their perception of the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) and its environment influencing the decision to develop their foreign language skills, in Bang Poo industrial area, Samuthprakarn, Thailand. The scope of this study was also based only on engineers who were working in Bang Poo industrial area. The study used quantitative research by distributing a structured questionnaire to collect data from 252 respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the results of this research. The findings from the descriptive analysis showed that the majority of the respondents were male and single. They were aged between 21-30 years old, holding a Bachelor’s degree, with work experience of less than five years, working in a large company in fertilizer, paint and chemical product industries. They were mostly receiving information about the AEC through TV programs and the internet. The Five-level Likert scale were chosen to be used to measure the attitude on the perception of the AEC and its environment level and the decision making level. The results of the hypotheses testing found that the demographic data and company characteristics had a significant relationship on the perception of engineers on the AEC and its environment. The perception of cultural diversity and perception of ASEAN MRAs (Mutual Recognition Arrangements) on engineering services has some influence on decision making by engineers to develop their foreign language skills.

INTRODUCTION

Statement of the Problems

The ASEAN Economic Community, or AEC, was established from the ASEAN leaders in the ten member countries, which are Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam to be stronger and more powerful in terms of economy

The goal of the AEC is to transform ASEAN into ‘one vision, one identity, one community’. The AEC is characterized by four primary objectives:

1. Single market and production base

2. Highly competitive economic region.

3. A region of equitable economic development.

4.A region that is fully integrated with the global economy.

ASEAN members not only want a single market, but also a single production base which requires free flow factors of production such as capital and skilled labour (Nikomborirak, 2012).

One of the goals set in the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint is the free flow of skilled labour. The AEC will spread the way for the free flow of skilled labour in seven specific professions: doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, architects,

accountants, and surveyors. All of these professionals will be free to move to other ASEAN countries after the launch of the AEC in 2015, following a mutual recognition arrangement among the ten ASEAN member countries. The most serious concern in various relevant organizations in Thailand is the low level, or lack of, any second language skills. Thailand is an independent autonomy, and has been such a country since many years back. Until now, this independence, and having never been colonized, might have been good for Thai people in terms of freedom. However, if one compares Thailand with other ASEAN countries–especially Singapore and Malaysia–then the Thai population is clearly very far behind in their English language skills. The EF English Proficiency index separate the proficiency of English skills into five levels, from the very high proficiency level, to the very low proficient level (EF English Proficiency Index, 2014).

From the Table 1, Thailand is in the very low proficiency level of English skills. ASEAN uses English as the official language of communication, so this is a significant problem in Thailand. The lack of language skills could drag Thailand in to disadvantage situation in any future negotiations (Anynoums, 2012).

TABLE 1

The Ranking of English Language Skills

High Proficiency / Moderate Proficiency / Low Proficiency / Very Low Proficiency
Singapore / Indonesia / Vietnam / Thailand
Malaysia / Cambodia

Source: EF English Proficiency index, 2014

Sakkarin Niyomsilpa (Fernquest, 2011) a demographic expert at Mahidol University’s Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), stated that: “Thailand’s weakness was its language limitations, especially in English. Filipino labourers could speak better English than Thais, giving them a much better

chance of getting hired in other countries.” He also added the point that the lack of attention or motivation to learn a foreign language by Thai students may make Thailand have no competitive advantages to Vietnam as a lot of Vietnamese could speak English or Thai language fluently.

TABLE 2

Current Registered Engineers on the ACPECC Database

Country / Quantity of registered engineers

Indonesia
Singapore
Malaysia
Vietnam
Myanmar
Phillippines
Brunei Darussalam
Cambodia
Laos PDR
Thailand

/ 260
218
199
113
72
38
2
1
0
0

Source: The ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer Coordinating Committee, 2015

From the ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer Coordinating Committee (ACPECC) recording about the registered number of the ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineers in all countries in ASEAN is shown above, in Table 2. Thailand and Laos PDR are on the same level which was the last rank in the list, with having not one engineer registered with the ACPECC. It is very clear that Thailand is so far behind the other ASEAN member countries, especially Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia (ACPECC Committee, 2015).

Today, Thai engineers in all the industries face the reality that they are going to be challenged for their jobs and their livelihoods by English-speaking immigrants from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and the other ASEAN nations where English language abilities are better than in Thailand (Buranasomphop, 2013).

From the research topic “The perception on opening Asean Economic Community of Thai Government in working people in Bangkok” the study examined the personal factors, learning factors and the relationship between economic growth with the perception of the AEC by the people in the Bangkok area. The results showed that the learning factors, government policy and economic growth had an effect on the perception of the AEC (Luengbootnak & Watcharpong, 2012).

However, even many articles, websites, and other secondary data or many related organizations in Thailand have focused on the weakness of Thai engineers, but there has, so far, been no any study or research project which points out the main variables that affect the problem of engineers to develop their foreign language skills. Therefore, from the previous research which was involved with the AEC and the decision to develop foreign language skills from any specified population, some have studied on the engineer’s perception in another area. The researcher chose to study in more detail from the background (Demographic Data) of engineers, and the researcher realized that the company characteristics might relate with the individual perception of the AEC and its environment. From the personal background, the company characteristics and the perception of the AEC, all of those variables may influence the decision making of an engineer working in the Bang Poo industrial area in Thailand.

If this research can find some relative or some influencing factors between these variables, it will be possible to find the ways to improve the language skills for Thai engineers in Bang Poo industrial area towards the right direction, in the immediate future.

Objectives

1) To identify the relationship between the demography and the perception of an engineer of the AEC and its environment.

2) To identify the relationship between the company characteristics and the perception of an engineer of the AEC and its environment.

3) To identify the influence of the perception of an engineer of the AEC and its environment and the decision making by an engineer to develop their foreign language skills.

Significance of the Study

All ten of the ASEAN member countries have agreed to use English as the officially language for communication, as Le Loung Mihn, Secretary-General of ASEAN in 2013 declared: “With the diversity in ASEAN reflected in our diverse histories, races, cultures and belief systems, English is an important and necessary tool to bring our Community closer together” (Le Loung Mihn, 2013).

The Thai engineering job market will be more challenging from other ASEAN member countries and Thai engineers will have more opportunities to working overseas too. This research project will aim towards finding a relationship between the demography of engineers, company characteristics and the perception of engineers in the Bang poo industrial area of the AEC and its environment that influences with their decision making to develop learning foreign language skills. The results from this research can be adapted and be useful in terms of human resource development or could be used in terms of analyzing organization behavior.

Scope of the study

This research used quantitative methodology by undertaking a survey to collect data from representative samples. The focus group in this research was Thai engineers who were working in the Bang Poo industrial area in the IEAT free-Zone and general industry zone located in Samuthprakarn province of Thailand.

The survey was divided into four parts, to collect data in four specific areas, namely: 1) demographic data; 2) company characteristics data: 3) individual perception of engineers of the AEC and its environment; and 4) the decision making to develop the engineer’s foreign language skills. For the sampling method, the researcher chose the stratified sampling method. Data collection in this research was undertaken by using two types of data: primary data and secondary data.

FIGURE 1

Conceptual Framework of a Study

Source: Adapted from Joungtrakul, 2012, Luengbootnak & Watcharpong, 2012, Pudthum & Sutamuang, 2013

LITERATURE REVIEW

Demography Theory

Thomson (2007) described demography to mean something not far from the Max Planck institute. She suggested that demography is a study of a population, to learn about the size, the factors and can describe the basis of general demographics by age, gender, family, and household status. Demography has three main focus points: 1) birth; 2), migration; and 3) death. In terms of a population’s social and economic factors, these can be defined by ethnicity, religion, language, education, occupation, income and wealth. The complication of studying a population is that it has many levels: local, regional, national, global, political, economic and geographic. Demography is a crucial part for understanding social and economic issues and can also investigate potential solutions. Demographics are associated in social planning, economic development, market research, insurance forecasting, labor market analysis, and so on. Jampathong(2010) separated the qualification of demographic characteristics such as age, gender, social status, economic status, education, religion, marital status, etc. All of these demographic characteristics have influence with the senses, interpretion and a person’s individual ability to perceive information.

Gender–Male and female are different in terms of physical, aptitude, inner thought, emotions, etc. Researchers have used brain scans and found the differences in the structure and function of male and female brains, such as the different way of solving problems, different emotional memories, different body movements and coordination (Plotnik, 2008).

Age–This is one of the factors that influences human behavior. It is not only due to the physical changes, but older people have more experience than younger generations.

Education–Education differences is one of the factors that influence factors that relate to attitude, mindset, ideals, perception, etc.

Socio-Economic Status–People from a different race, family-size, occupation, and income; all of these factors have an influence with attitude, mindset, ideals, perception, etc.

Religion–has an effect with human behavior including individual attitude. The religion influences on people in three ways which are morality, politics and economics.

Demography theory, as mentioned above, from a reliable source concluded with previous research, could be the guideline for this research. Therefore, demography is the particular characteristics of a population. A study of the relationship between demography and the perception of engineers on the AEC and its environments should be the first basic assumption that a researcher focuses on.

AEC

ASEAN is the acronym for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand. It first started with consisting of only five countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. After several years Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia decided to join ASEAN. Today, the ASEAN membership has ten countries (Secretariat, 2014).

AEC Advantages to Thailand

Products and services in Thailand will largely expand from the present status to serve only 60 million customers to become approximately 600 million people throughout ASEAN (Anonymous, 2013, 2012).Gain more investment and trading activities in other ASEAN members due to easier and free movement (Buranasomphop, 2014).

Thailand will become a hub and also be the center of exhibitions, meetings, national conferences, telecommunication, as Thailand is located in the center of ASEAN. Tourism will have more opportunities to grow (Buranasomphop, 2014). AEC will expand the movement of raw material which is good for Thai manufacturers for reducing the cost of production because Thai factories can import cheaper material from other ASEAN members.

Infrastructure will greatly improve by becoming integrated to other ASEAN members and so the transportation around the region will decrease.

ASEAN will not only be a single market, but also a single production base which requires free flow factors of production such as capital and skilled labour (Nikomborirak, 2012). The AEC will spread the way for the free flow of skilled labor in seven identified professions: accountants, doctors, nurses, dentists, engineers, architects, and surveyors.

This research project chose to focus on just one of the seven professions in the list which is engineering. The researcher began with a preparation of engineers which had three major challenging topics (Rattanaguonkangwa, 2012);

English language–the official language in the ASEAN region is English.
Learn and understand the history and culture from other ASEAN member countries–Thai engineers should open their mind to working with engineers from another ASEAN country and understanding other cultures and history will decrease potential conflict in the work place.
Focus on Project based learning (PBL)–Most Thai engineers have studied in the old education system which means that some of them may have less fieldwork experience. They should be working as a team and keep improving their skills to be more competitive in the whole region in preparation to the free movement of skilled labour, especially in engineering services.
From all AEC Theory, there will be a lot of challenges that Thai engineers will face and also with the opportunity to working aboard and expanding their career path. The important part which engineers should focus on are the differentiation of cultures, more competitors in their area of work, the legal regulations of each country, the mutual recognition on engineer services, and the last one is communication skills. This research project focused only on the perception of engineers in the Bang Poo industrial area on what might influence the decision making by engineers to develop their foreign language skills. The background knowledge about the AEC of each person was not equal, so this should be the significant factor that influences the individual perception of the AEC.

Perception Theory

Perception is the experience a person experiences after the brain assembles and combines thousands of individual un-explained sensations into a meaningful pattern or scene. A person’s perceptions are usually changed, understood, colored, or twisted by personal experience. Therefore, perceptions are a very personal explanation of the fact from a subjective, individual point of view (Plotnik, 2008).

There are five steps in forming a perception:

Stimulus; the first step before a person can experience the perception is stimulus or several stimuli from any change of energy around them such as the sound waves, light waves, etc. which are transferred to the ears, eyes, nose or mouth.
Transduction; from the first step, the energy will transfer to the human body sensory system. This step will change the stimuli into an electrical sign.
Brain: the sense organs will go to primary areas of the brain. The brain in the primary areas will change electrical signals from the previous step into sensations.
Brain: connection areas; this next step will change the meaningless forms bit of the senses from last step into the meaningful and recognizable image.
Personalized perceptions; this step is the last thing that influences a person’s individual perception, because everyone has a different life experience. The perception will be distorted by one’s own personal and subjective past experience.

Factors Influencing Perception